This invention relates to apparatus for exercising the eyes and more particularly to such apparatus for developing an accurate saccadic fixation in horizontal, vertical, oblique and circular directions.
The prior art is replete with a number of patents which depict various exercising devices to enable a patient to exercise the eye muscles in a beneficial way.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,588,191 entitled CONTROL UNITS FOR VISUAL TRAINING DEVICES, issued on Mar. 4, 1952 to M. Zuras shows a visual training device which consists of a series of light bulbs which are energized individually or simultaneously in various sequences. The device is relatively complicated in structure and is extremely difficult to use and to manufacture.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,718,227 entitled VISUAL EXERCISING DEVICES by A. Powell, issued on Sept. 20, 1955 shows a visual exercising device which produces patterns by the use of light bulbs and allows a user to view the displayed patterns for visual training purposes. The device is also a relatively complicated device.
There are, of course, many other patents which show other vision therapy devices which are implemented to allow a handicapped user to exercise various muscles in order to achieve better control. In any event, certain individuals suffer from eye muscle defects which cause them extreme problems in muscle control and response time to movement. This is due to the fact that such persons cannot move their eyes in the required directions as in the horizontal, vertical, oblique and circular directions.
In order to improve this disability, these people have to be trained to increase their eye scanning in all directions in order to enable them to function properly. In conjunction with the above problem, such a training device should also offer the physician or practitioner the ability to monitor a handicapped individual's disabilities and to thereby enable the practitioner to further assist the individual in overcoming the disability. In this manner, the exercising device can help the practitioner to establish the nature of the difficulties and to, therefore, enable the patient to develop directional and laterability skills as well as spatial awareness. Hence, in order to overcome these problems, the saccadic enhancer according to this invention can be used by the practitioner as well as patients to enable the patient to increase the strength of their eye muscles and response time to movement as well as to enable the practitioner to determine the extent and nature of the disabilities.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an improved eye exercising apparatus which aparatusl is capable of generating a plurality of patterns in the form of sequential light movements and which patterns can be varied in direction and speed according to the particular disability of the handicapped person.